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# 2005 Institution of Chemical Engineers
www.icheme.org/journals Trans IChemE, Part C, March 2005
doi: 10.1205/fbp.04041 Food and Bioproducts Processing, 83(C1): 1–5

EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT STARCH TYPES ON

RETARDATION OF STALING OF
MICROWAVE-BAKED CAKES
N. SEYHUN, G. SUMNU
and S. SAHIN
Department of Food Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

D
ifferent types of starches (corn, potato, waxy corn, amylomaize and pregelatinized
starches) were added to cake formulations to retard staling of microwave-baked
cakes. As a control, cake formulated without any starch addition was used.
Weight loss, firmness, volume index, specific gravity, soluble starch and amylose content
of cakes were used as the indicators of staling and/or quality criteria. Variation of staling
parameters during storage of cakes followed zero-order kinetics. Cakes were baked in a
microwave oven for 1.5 min at 100% power. Control cakes were also baked in a conventional
oven at 1758C for 25 min. Pregelatinized starch helped to decrease moisture loss during
baking and storage. Cakes containing amylomaize starch were firmer than the control cake.
Starches, except amylomaize, were effective in reducing firmness during storage. The most
effective starch type, in terms of retarding the staling of microwave-baked cakes, was
chosen as pregelatinized starch. More amylose was leached in control cakes during micro-
wave baking than conventionally baked cakes.

Keywords: cake; starch; microwave baking; staling.

INTRODUCTION One of the problems in microwave-baked cakes is

After baking, all bakery products undergo a series of
chemical and physical changes which are referred to as stal-
ing (Cauvain, 1998). Staling results in loss of freshness and
quality of the baked product. The most important change
associated with staling is the gradual increase in the firm-
ness of the baked product. The term firmness refers to the
force necessary to attain a given deformation (Gil et al.,
1999). It is known that starch retrogradation implies hard-
ening of the starch gel, therefore it is supposed to be
responsible for the increased firmness of the stale product.
Starch retrogradation is mostly influenced by three factors:
temperature, specific volume of the baked product and
moisture content (Stauffer, 2000).
Guy (1983) reported that the overall firming of cakes
consisted of two separate processes: a firming effect
caused by moisture transfer from crumb to crust, and an
intrinsic firming of cell wall material which was associated
with starch retrogradation during storage. Functionality of
the ingredients is important for cake staling. Ingredients
such as sugar and fat have softening effects on cakes, but
eggs have firming effects (Hodge, 1977).


Correspondence to: Professor G. Sumnu, Department of Food Engineering,
Middle East Technical University, 06531 Ankara, Turkey.
E-mail: gulum@metu.edu.tr
accelerated staling. Although various studies investigated
the effects of ingredients and processing conditions on
the quality of microwave baked cakes (Baker et al., 1990;
Sumnu et al., 2000), they did not consider their staling.
The staling mechanism of microwave-baked cakes is
therefore still unclear. Another problem in microwave
baking is the higher moisture loss with respect to conven-
tional baking methods. It was shown that microwave
baked cakes and breads lost more moisture than conven-
tionally baked ones (Sumnu et al., 1999). When a food
material is heated in a microwave oven, relatively larger
amounts of interior heating result in increased moisture
vapour generation inside of a solid food material, which
creates significant interior pressure and concentration gra-
dients. Positive pressures generated inside a food material
increase the flow of the vapour and liquid through the
food material to the boundary (Datta, 1990). Using instant
starches or adding hydrocolloids can be used to increase
moisture retention (Bell and Steinke, 1991; Zallie, 1988).
Moisture content is an important parameter for staling
since starch retrogradation slows when the moisture content
is high. Studies showed that increasing the moisture content
of bread by 2% increased its shelf life by one day (Stauffer,
2000). Therefore, high moisture loss in microwave-baked
goods was thought as a reason for rapid staling in micro-
wave baking.

1
2 SEYHUN et al.
Usage of different ingredients having different physical
properties become significant in order to retard staling of
microwave baked cakes and to give insights to the staling
mechanism in a microwave oven. The main objective of
this study was to retard staling of microwave-baked cakes
by using different starches so that the quality of microwave-
baked cakes during storage could be comparable to that
of conventionally baked cakes.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Materials
Five different types of starches; potato starch (Çapamarka,
Turkey), corn starch (Çapamarka, Turkey), waxy corn
starch (NovationTM 4600, National Starch and Chemical
Company, USA), amylomaize starch (HylonTM VII,
National Starch and Chemical Company, USA), and pre-
gelatinized tapioca starch (Ultra-TexTM 3, National Starch
and Chemical Company, USA) were used to compare
their effects on cake staling. Cake flour (untreated) was
supplied by Özkaşıkçı, Turkey. Flour contains 27% wet
gluten, 13% moisture and 0.65% ash. Plain shortening
containing soybean lecithin was used as fat. All other
ingredients used for cake baking were supplied from the
commercial markets.
The basic control cake was a classical white-layer cake
formulation. It contained 100% cake flour, 100% sugar,
50% fat, 125% water, 12% milk powder, 9% egg white,
3% salt and 5% baking powder (all percentages were
given in flour weight basis).
Preparation of Cakes
Egg white and sugar were mixed in a mixer (Arçelik
ARK55 MS, Turkey) at its lowest speed, for one minute.
Fat was added and mixed. All the dry ingredients (cake
flour, milk powder, salt and baking powder) and water
were added simultaneously and mixed for two minutes
until the cake batter was obtained. Cake batter of 100 g
was weighed in a greased glass baking pan (8 cm in dia-
meter) lined with waxy paper. The baking pan was placed
in the centre of the microwave oven (Arçelik, Turkey)
and baked at 100% power for 1.5 min. The power of the
microwave oven used in this study was determined by
the IMPI 2-L test (Buffler, 1993) as 785 W. The control
cake formulation was also baked in a forced conventional
electrical oven (Arçelik, Turkey) for 25 min at 1758C.
After baking, the cakes were cooled to room temperature
(20 + 28C) for one hour. Then, the cakes were wrapped
with stretch film, and stored at 20 + 28C for five days.
Five different starches were used to compare their effects
on the staling of microwave-baked cakes. The basic control
cake formulation was used by adding 5% starch (5 g of
cake flour is replaced with starch in 100 g cake flour). As
a control, no starch was added to the cake formulation.
Quality Measurements
Water binding capacity was determined for starches by
using the method of Medcalf and Gilles (1965).
In order to measure the staling and quality of microwave-
baked cakes, volume index, specific gravity, weight loss,
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2005, 83(C1): 1–5
firmness, soluble starch and amylose content of the cakes
were determined. All measurements were done each day
during five-day storage of the cakes, except volume index
and specific gravity. Volume indices of the cakes were
measured only after baking. Specific gravities of the cake
batters were measured before baking.
Volume index of the cake was determined by using the
AACC template method 10-91 (AACC, 1991), but this
chart was modified with respect to the cake diameter used
in this study (8 cm). The amount of air incorporated into
a batter was determined by measuring the specific gravity
of batter using a pycnometer. The cake was weighed
before baking, just after the baking, and each day during
storage to determine weight loss.
Firmness of the cake was measured using a universal
testing machine (Lloyd Instruments LR30K, UK). A load
cell of 5 N was used with a compression of 25% and a
speed of 55 mm/s. A cylindrical probe of 2.5 cm in dia-
meter was used. Cake samples were prepared according
to the method of AACC (1988).
Soluble starch was determined colorimetrically by
adding iodine solution to the water extract of cake
(Giovanelli et al., 1997). The amylose content in soluble
starch was determined by using the method of Morad
and D’Appolonia (1980).
Statistical Analysis
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine
the significant differences between the effects of starches
on the retardation of staling of microwave-baked cakes. If
significant difference was found, the treatments were
compared by Duncan’s Multiple Range test (P  0.05).
Three replications from different bakes were used for
each treatment in all of the quality measurements.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figures 1 and 2 show the effects of starch types on
percent weight loss after baking and during one hour of
cooling, respectively. As can be seen in these figures,
microwave baked cakes lost more moisture than
Figure 1. Effects of different starch types on weight loss of microwave-
baked cakes during baking.
Bars with different letters (a, b, etc.) are
significantly different (P  0.05).
 STARCH TYPES ON RETARDATION OF STALING 3

Figure 2. Effects of different starch types on weight loss of microwave- Figure 3. Effects of different starch types on weight loss of microwave-baked
baked cakes during one hour of cooling.
Bars with different letters cakes during storage. (4) controla
; (O) corna; (V) potatoab; (
) pregelatinizedbc;
(a, b, etc.) are significantly different (P  0.05). (B) waxy cornab; (†) amylomaizeab, (W) conventionalc.
Starch types with
different letters (a, b, etc.) are significantly different (P  0.05).

conventionally baked cakes. It was previously shown
that microwave-baked cakes lost more moisture than con-
ventionally baked ones (Sumnu et al., 1999). Relatively
larger amount of interior heating during microwave
baking result in significant internal pressure which
increases the loss of moisture from the baked product
(Datta, 1990).
Control cakes containing no added starch and amylo-
maize starch added cakes lost more weight, in other
words more moisture during baking (Figure 1). Pregelati-
nized starch was the most effective starch on reducing
the weight loss. The amount of moisture that microwave-
baked cakes containing pregelatinized starch and
conventionally baked cakes lost are not significantly
different. This may be explained by very high water
binding capacity of pregelatinized starch (Table 1). Since
pregelatinized starches bind a significantly greater amount
of water, they are recommended to be used for moisture
retention in baked goods (Zallie, 1988).
In Figure 2, it can be seen that all the cakes baked in the
microwave oven lost more moisture than conventionally
baked cake during cooling. Adding any type of starch
decreased the weight loss of cakes as compared to control
cakes. This can be explained by the higher water binding
capacities of starches compared to that of flour (Table 1).
Pregelatinized starch is again the most effective starch to
reduce weight loss of microwave cakes one hour after
baking.
The variation of weight loss during the storage of cakes
can be seen in Figure 3. Cakes baked with pregelatinized
starch lost a similar amount of moisture as conventionally
baked cakes during storage (Figure 3). The loss of moisture
is an important consideration in cake staling (Willhoft,
1973). During storage, weight loss of the cakes increased
linearly therefore a zero-order kinetic model was proposed:
dY
¼k
dt
where Y was the dependent variable (weight loss), t was
storage time in days and k was the kinetic rate constant.
Rate constants and regression coefficients are given
in Table 2. Control cake had the highest rate of weight
loss, and it was significantly different from all other
cakes, except amylomaize starch added cakes. Slow rate
constants of starch added cakes showed that starches were
effective to reduce weight loss not only during baking but
also during storage.
Firmness of the baked goods is a good indicator of stal-
ing, because staling causes an increase in the firmness of
both breads and cakes. The effects of different starch
types (except amylomaize starch) on firmness of microwave-
baked cakes can be seen in Figure 4. When amylomaize
starch was shown in this graph, it became significantly
different from all other starches because of its very high
Table 2. Effects of different starch types on the rate constants of different
staling indicators.

Soluble
Table 1. Water binding capacities Weight loss Firmness starch Amylose
(WBC) of different starches.
k r2 k r2 k r2 k r2
WBC (w/w)
Control 1.77 0.95 0.26 0.89 0.30 0.93 0.18 0.99
Flour 0.63 Conventional 0.73 0.91 0.18 0.99 0.22 0.99 0.07 0.98
Corn 0.68 Corn 1.55 0.96 0.22 0.96 0.34 0.90 0.18 0.95
Potato 0.70 Potato 1.52 0.94 0.17 0.97 0.16 0.87 0.08 0.98
Waxy corn 1.18 Waxy corn 1.18 0.87 0.11 0.93 0.09 0.99 0.01 0.80
Amylomaize 0.92 Amylomaize 1.39 0.97 1.64 0.96 0.48 0.99 0.26 0.95
Pregelatinized 4.80 Pregelatinized 1.18 0.98 0.13 0.94 0.28 0.98 0.08 0.90

Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2005, 83(C1): 1–5
4 SEYHUN et al.

Table 3. Volume indices and specific gravities of cake

formulations containing different starch types.

Volume index (cm)

Specific
L C R gravity

Control 28 30 28 86 0.96
Corn 28 30 28 86 0.95
Potato 30 32 30 92 0.92
Waxy corn 30 28 30 88 0.94
Pregelatinized 32 34 32 98 0.90
Amylomaize 28 30 28 86 0.94
Conventional 30 32 30 92

L, left; C, centre; R, right.

Figure 4. Effects of different starch types on firmness of microwave-baked

cakes during storage. (4) controla
; (B) cornb; (O) potatobc; (
) pregelatinizedc;
(V) waxy cornbc; (†) conventionald.
Starch types with different letters
(a, b, etc.) are significantly different (P  0.05).
rate constant (Table 2) and the effects of other starches on
firmness of microwave-baked cakes could not be seen
clearly in the same graph. Therefore, firmness variation
of microwave-baked cakes containing amylomaize starch
was given separately in Figure 5.
When baked goods stale, their firmness values increase.
In microwave baking, this increase was faster than the con-
ventional baking (Figure 4 and Table 2). This might be
related with the high amount of amylose leached during
microwave heating (Higo et al., 1983). As can be seen
from Figure 4, all starches were effective on slowing
down the firmness change, in other words, retardation of
staling of microwave-baked cakes when compared to the
control cake. The effects of pregelatinized starch, waxy corn
starch, and potato starch on the firmness of microwave-
baked cakes were not significantly different. Cakes
containing amylomaize starch were firmer than the control
cake (Figures 4 and 5). Amylomaize contains the highest
amylose content (70%) as compared to the other starches.
This may show that staling of microwave-baked cakes
mainly comes from amylose retrogradation.
Volume indices of microwave-baked cakes and specific
gravities of cake batters with different starches are shown
in Table 3. Specific gravity is a measurement of air
Figure 5. Effect of amylomaize starch on firmness of microwave-baked
cake during storage.
incorporated into a cake batter during mixing. This air
(along with baking powder gasses released during baking)
determines the cake texture and volume. The low volume
of microwave-baked cakes was known to be due to the
insufficient starch gelatinization (Yin and Walker, 1995).
An inverse relationship between batter specific gravity
and cake volume were observed (Table 3). This might indi-
cate that different starches had the ability to retain a greater
amount of air into the batter (less specific gravity) and
maintained more air during the final stage of baking
(larger cake volume). As can be seen in the table, volume
index of pregelatinized starch added microwave baked
cake (with the least specific gravity) was the highest.
Since pregelatinized starch is already gelatinized, develop-
ment of structure and volume of the cakes can easily be
completed during microwave baking. The waxy corn
starch added cakes collapsed in the oven. This can be
explained by the highest gelatinization enthalpy and
lower dielectric loss factor of waxy corn starch than the
other starches (Sumnu, 1997; Ndife et al., 1998). High
gelatinization enthalpy and low dielectric loss factor indi-
cate slow heating and slow gelatinization. Therefore, the
short time of microwave baking might not be enough for
the gelatinization and structure development of waxy
corn added cakes.
Soluble starch and amylose is released to the environ-
ment during the gelatinization process and the amount of
both soluble starch and amylose decreases with the staling
process because they tend to reassociate during retrograda-
tion (Zallie, 1988). Therefore, the amount of soluble starch
and amylose is used as an indicator of staling. Table 4
shows the effect of starch types on soluble starch and amy-
lose contents of microwave baked cakes. Amount of both
soluble starch and amylose decreased during storage. Amy-
lomaize starch added cakes had the highest rate of leaching
of soluble starch (Table 2). High amylose content (70%) of
amylomaize starch might be the reason for the highest rate
of soluble starch leached in the cake.
It can be seen that more amylose was leached in control
cakes during microwave baking than conventionally baked
cakes (Table 4). The amount and rate of variation of amy-
lose content for the waxy corn added cakes were very low
compared to the other treatments, due to the very low
amylose content of waxy corn starch (3%). Amylomaize
starch, having the highest amylose content, had the highest
amylose variation rate (Table 2). These results also
explained the highest firming rate of amylomaize added
cakes.

Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2005, 83(C1): 1–5
 STARCH TYPES ON RETARDATION OF STALING 5

Table 4. Soluble starch and amylose contents of cake formulations containing different starch types.

Soluble starch (%) in days Amylose (%) in days

0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4

Control 2.427 2.263 2.033 1.775 1.187 1.151 1.007 0.814 0.604 0.499
Corn 2.857 2.119 1.754 1.658 1.383 0.959 0.672 0.456 0.418 0.192
Potato 1.783 1.37 1.331 1.149 1.091 0.371 0.293 0.247 0.127 0.079
Waxy corn 1.207 1.12 1.005 0.938 0.861 0.037 0.017 0.007 0.005 0.003
Pregelatinized 2.675 2.57 2.157 1.944 1.59 0.329 0.227 0.068 0.014 0.009
Amylomaize 1.965 1.556 1.04 0.433 0.102 1.382 1.022 0.649 0.454 0.343
Conventional 2.486 2.26 2.011 1.768 1.645 0.341 0.307 0.198 0.118 0.067

CONCLUSIONS
Pregelatinized starch, waxy corn starch and potato starch
were significantly effective in retarding staling according to
the firmness of cakes. The highest volume indexes were
obtained in cakes formulated with pregelatinized starch.
The moisture that pregelatinized starch added microwave
cake and the conventionally baked cake lost during
baking were not significantly different. The final quality
of the cakes baked with pregelatinized starch was close to
the conventionally baked cakes. As a result, pregelatinized
starch can be recommended to be used in microwave cake
formulations to retard staling.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the Middle East Technical University
(AFP-2001-03-14-04). National Starch and Chemical Company is
acknowledged for supplying waxy corn, amylomaize and pregelatinized
starches.
The manuscript was received 17 February 2004 and accepted for
publication after revision 7 December 2004.

Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2005, 83(C1): 1–5